Latin - Lingva Romana + Assimil

I've now given up on Ecce Romani. I found some of the sentences rather strange.

First I switched to the new Assimil.  Nice binding to the book but the audio is bizarre.  I thought the English version of Latin pronunciation was a bit off but the French pronunciation is even weirder.  They seem to have decided to elide some of the final vowels and on top of that they seem to think that if they mumble this will make the language sound more like a living spoken language.

Why do they have people speaking clearly in all the other languages but for Latin, right from the start, it's pretty hard to make out many of the words.

I've reached about chapter nine so I'll keep at it.  In the meantime I've decided to give Lingva Romana a try.  Apparently it just uses Latin and you're supposed to work out the grammar for yourself - if that's possible.

The great thing is that it has audio and all the sentences appear in the audio.  There's heaps of repetition in the text so it's a great way to get a feel for a difficult language that one normally only gets to read rather than hear.  And probably it's hearing a language that's essential for getting a feel for it.

Latin

For Latin I've been using Ecce Romani.

It's a pretty fancy looking book in heaps of volumes and judging by the groups on facebook, it's used in many schools in the US. I'd like to critcise it but I won't. I just haven't worked through enough of it. And I think I'm just annoyed by the fact that there's no translation of the reading passage which might be to do with the fact that it's meant to be used in schools. Though I am surprised that with such a popular book, no one's posted translations of the reading passages on the net.

I'm also a bit perplexed about the sentence:

Ego sum laetus quod Rōmam īre volō.

I am happy because I want to go to Rome.

If my translation is correct then to me it seems to be a bit of a non sequitur. And I find that sort of thing really annoying in grammar books. It would be ok if the phrase were translated in the book, but if you have to work it out yourself, you translate it, then think: hmmm, that can't be right, it doesn't really make sense...

Perhaps my understanding of the Latin is wrong? Perhaps the sentence makes sense in context? I just wish I'd picked a different text to use.